In recent years, tiny houses have caught the attention of HGTV shows, home-owners, vacation home buyers and renters, and people looking to simplify life, but less often have they been seen being used as tiny stores.
A residential neighborhood in Cleveland, OH, approached developers – Burten, Bell, Carr Development – to bring goods and services to their area that was unique and new to the area. The developers created what they called BoxSpot, which consisted of seven different retail spaces for seven small businesses that each came in its own shipping container. The retail spaces provide very limited space for small business owners, but with such a simple design, these small business owners are cutting their costs, simplifying their own business designs, and stocking only what’s necessary. Sharyna Cloud, the owner of Kandy Kupboard – a store within BoxSpot – said, “when I tell people it’s about 134 square inches, they’re like, ‘What does that look like?’…But, it’s enough space for me to do what I need to do.” Cloud was one of 100 retailers who reached out to the developers to rent one of the boxes.
Burten, Bell, Carr Development seemed to have to do very little “selling” to their customers when it came to the developing of BoxSpot, but I would argue that Burten, Bell, Carr Development only had it so easy because they first understood the needs of their customers. The community was in need of an innovative way to bring shops, services, and places to eat in the neighborhood, and to do so in a way that maximized the minimal space that they were given. Not only did they maximize the space, but they did it in a way that was also very affordable for small business owners. BoxSpot sold to their customers what their customers didn’t even know they needed, which has shown through their success in the Cleveland location and their efforts to expand into other locations as well.
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Aliyah Shelatz 
Luke Hassinger 
Sophia Whiteman
I like the idea of a small shop, and the shipping crates are a pretty cheap way to go about it. It was a good thought you had on the people knowing their customer well enough to know what they would want. It would be interesting to hear from some of the store owners about how they heard about BoxSpot, whether it was something they had looked into or if they had met up with Burten, Bell, Carr Development along the way.
This is a really cool idea and is a perfect example of good selling. Part of good selling is simply offering something practical that no one else is offering, and this company does precisely that. Now how successful BoxSpot will be in the long run I can’t say, it seems like a very interesting business model that might backfire down the road, but who knows? It could be a huge hit!
Great post here and I hope you have a great week!
I love the idea of having these small shops for retailers. This is an amazing idea and it could be of great benefit to many businesses. These small stores could work as wonderful drop off points for majority online businesses allowing their to be a in a physical space. I would like to know how long people can hold business in these boxes? All in all I think this a great idea; I hope to see more about this.